abc's karen travers has details. good morning, karen. >> reporter: good morning, rob. good morning, tanya. yesterday the transportation secretary assured americans that safety would not be compromised. but this partial faa shutdown is compromising construction jobs and projects. >> this is 100 airport projects across the country that have been stopped because of the fights in washington. >> reporter: that means projects like this half-finished tower in oakland. and this one in palm springs. postponed because of the funding fifit. >> this time everybody wants to play hardball. and hardball hurt us. >> reporter: already, 4,000 faa employees have been furloughed. and more than 70,000 construction workers are out of a job. also cut off, 40 airport safety inspectors. the faa asked them to keep working, without pay, citing their "professionalism." airlines are unable to collect taxes on ticket sales. so the federal government has already lost more than $200 million. that figure will increase the longer this goes on. >> don't let $1 billion at a time when we're scrambling for